The days of February 25^th-26^th we had good wind for sailing, and I think Kristian, Bertram and Peter made a competition for the best boat speed. And it worked – better and better! From 12.5 knots in the beginning to more than 14 knots later. Then Peter taught Robert how to helm the ship for the first time, and his record was gone. 14.8 knots was the new record! They had their fun outside, only the cooking job was not funny. The ship movements without seeing the waves coming made problems to cut the vegetables. Sometimes we had flying onions, flying carrots, flying melons and a flying coffee filter there. What a mess!

Then the wind had a little nap, and yesterday we tried to sail with the spinnaker. At night, the spinnaker sailing ended. The wind was more and more tired, and it changed in direction. The crew as well. So we left our course, but Mr. Perkins (the engine) brought us back to the planned line. The night watch between February 26^th and the 27^th was very interesting for me. First, I had a long conversation with Frederik about our homes, our families and about our MS. Later in this night Robert came with his iPhone, and we heard Pavarotti and other classical music. We saw the moonlight reflecting on the waves, and it was a nearly perfect night. I said to Robert: “Life could be so perfect without MS. But without MS we wouldn't be here.”

Later Robert had a dramatic divorce from his wife (otherwise known as his iPhone). He lost the phone in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. No more Pavarotti and friends! I have some classical music on board, but we have no CD player. Ugh!

Now some words in German for my wife at home:

Alles gute zum Geburtstag nachtraeglich. Mehr als 1000 nm entfernt von unseren Ziel, Nuku Hiva. Ich hoffe meine Glueckwuensche kommen mit diesem Blog bei dir an.

Gruesse, dein Bernd. See me in youtube!

Report from Bosun Bertram:

Day 10 and everything seems the same as day 2. The sun is burning so hot that we have to cool the deck with sea water, the ocean is blue 360 degrees around us with no one else in sight, and the wind is steady out of the east, slightly died down. We are sailing by the main sail and the genoa, hoping to put up the big spinnaker again this afternoon when the waves have settled a bit. With wind so constantly out of the same direction, the waves tend to build and build, and we are fortunate that we are surfing the same way as they are, when the 3-5 meter waves roll in from the far distance.

We are averaging about 8 knots, going between 190 and 200 miles per day with about 1,100 nautical miles left, so we are hoping to reach Nuku Hiva this weekend!

Local time on board is 10:30 and our current position is 8,4.77S, 120,55.11W.